Coleto Creek 1/5/12.

What a day. I started off throwing a jerk bait and caught one immediately. I went back over that bank again and caught another small one on spinnerbait. I decided it was time for a move.

There was no wind, a light cloud cover, and the water was clear. I headed to a deep main lake point and threw a worm. I caught one on a 10″ red worm that was a pretty good one, but no other bites. As I rounded the point going back in the cove, I noticed shad flipping, so out came the Bagley Bang-O-Lure.

I have been using them for years, and this one is not made anymore. I found 5 of them in a dirty old sporting goods store in Fort Worth about 6 years ago, and guard them with my life. My favorite is a silver foil with a black back. It is made of balsa, and is a light high floater. I began to catch them right off the bat. Just jerking it along, not really stopping, just jerking it under. From then it was game on. 6 came over the side in short order. Now it was time for another move.

Here is where the trouble started. I put on the camera, and as you can see in the video, I caught one right off the bat, and then the camera went dead. So no big deal, just a dead battery. I kept twitching and jerking it along, with consistent bites. The pattern was definitely south facing coves from the points to about 1/3 of the way in. It was about mid-day, and so up the lake a little farther I went. But remember as you read this, my battery was dead after the following video.

I was fishing a flat south facing bank, with small pockets in it, when it happened. Now I guided for over 20 years, and have fished all over the country, and few places out of it, but what happened next left me sick to my stomach. And as I write this 5 hours later it still makes me sick.

My cast landed next to a lay down, I twitched it under, and it just disappeared in a huge boil. I set the hook and what happened next still seems like a dream. Up came a bass, and I do not mean any bass, a huge bass, the biggest thing I have ever seen alive anywhere. It could have swallowed the last one over 9 pounds I caught.

She jumped twice and my heart was thumping in my ears. I played her so good, right to the boat, then she turned, and was gone. I almost threw up. There it was, the biggest fish of my life by a mile, by 100 miles, and she pulled off. I did not horse her, I did not mess up, everything was perfect, and it happened.

Though I did manage to catch 16, it meant nothing. Fish come off, it happens. No matter what we do they will pull off. What made this so bad, it isn’t one of those deals where I can say I lost a big one, not sure how big, just big. This was in my face, out of the water, full view, big ass monster. By far the biggest thing I have ever seen in a lifetime of trying.

So as I try to put it in perspective, I am trying to keep a stiff upper lip. Don’t worry, it won’t be the last one this size you will get a shot at. Don’t worry, it may be the next cast. Don’t worry, there is always tomorrow. Don’t worry, the video battery won’t be dead next time. That is what keeps us fishing.